Cultural Heritage Management for Sustainable Development in Rural Cultural Landscapes: The Case of Throne of Solomon in Iran

This paper is aimed at studying the potentials of cultural heritage in the discourse of development in rural cultural landscapes. It studies the attributes of the integrated cultural landscape management in order to maintain sustainability of the cultural landscape as a holistic system of entangled cultural and natural elements. This management approach is investigated through participative activities as well as considering cultural heritage as a resource for local sustainable development in all dimensions. While going through chronological review of policy documents in the area of sustainable development and cultural integration, academic literature review was made to come up with defining the interfaces of valorization of cultural heritage and the dimensions of sustainable development. The relevant challenges regarding the rural cultural landscapes were studied through a questionnaire survey in the case of a World Heritage Site in Iran, namely Throne of Solomon (Takht-e Soleyman). The findings of the empirical research show that the area is suffering from the lack of symmetrical exploitation of the resources not adequately resulting in economic development, environmental protection and social cohesion. On the other hand, at local level there is a positive trend for the participative activities for valorization of cultural heritage as a potential resource for development which acknowledges global recognition of culture as the forth pillar of sustainable development.